The Not So Secret War Against Fracking

The Daily Caller today released a power point presentation in which the Rockefeller Foundation proposed to coordinate and fund media campaign to derail fracking and oils sands oil extraction and the building of the Keystone and similar pipelines in the US and Canada:

A Powerpoint presentation obtained by The Daily Caller shows that during a July 2008 meeting, the $789 million Rockefeller Brothers Fund proposed to coordinate and fund a dozen environmental and anti-corporate activist groups’ efforts to scuttle pipelines carrying tar sands oil from Canada to the United States.

The most recent incarnation of that pipeline plan, the Keystone XL project, was the subject of intense public controversy until the Obama administration rejected it in January.

The 2008 meeting consisted of presentations from Rockefeller Brothers Fund program officer Michael Northrop, Corporate Ethics International Executive Director Michael Marx, Natural Resources Defense Council attorney Susan Casey-Lefkowitz and the director of a Canadian activist group called the Pembina Institute.

A copy of the Power Point is posted here.  Going through it, it is quite clear they oppose development of new fossil fuel resources in hopes of forcing the development of their preferred renewable sources.  Bear in mind that for renewables to replace fossil fuel, the cost of energy from fossil fuel must rise above that of renewables, or the fossil fuels must simply be regulated out of existence (which will produce the same result.

The Rockefeller Foundation and the various groups represented there have the right to join together and try to influence public opinion in any way they wish.  They are only responsible to the people who provided them the money to do so. The same, of course, applies to the Koch brothers, the Heartland Institute, or anyone else who chooses to oppose their propaganda with their own.  Don't expect me to be disturbed the next time the radical enviros complain of a conspiracy to oppose their own.

As they say, sunlight is the best disinfectant (bleach and gamma rays work pretty well, too, though), and the dirty laundry needs exposure from both sides to be thoroughly cleansed.